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Inverse View
It is not the case that Hume demonstrated that what we call 'will' is itself produced by prior impressions, passions, and causal antecedents beyond the agent's control.
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Reasons For
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Reason for
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1.
Hume conflates the causal influence on will with the elimination of will itself; influenced decisions can still be genuinely voluntary.
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2.
The very intelligibility of moral responsibility and rational deliberation suggests we possess a will not wholly reducible to prior causes.
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3.
Hume's bundle theory of mind may be empirically inadequate; unified agency could be a real feature not detected by passive observation.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
Empirical introspection reveals only fleeting impressions and emotional states, never a ghostly 'will' standing apart from them.
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2.
If will were uncaused, it would be random and therefore not genuinely 'ours'—causation by prior states is necessary for agency.
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3.
Neuroscience confirms that neural activity precedes conscious decision-making, supporting Hume's claim about causal antecedence.
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